I've had three distinct careers: biomedical scientist; FDA drug regulator; and scholar at the Hoover Institution, a think-tank at Stanford University. During the first of these, I worked on various aspects of gene expression and regulation in viruses and mammalian cells. I was the co-discoverer of a critical enzyme in the influenza (flu) virus. While at the FDA, I was the medical reviewer for the first genetically engineered drugs and thus instrumental in the rapid licensing of human insulin and human growth hormone. Thereafter, I was a special assistant to the FDA commissioner and the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology. Since coming to the Hoover Institution, I have become well known for both contributions to peer-reviewed scholarly journals and for articles and books that make science, medicine, and technology accessible to non-experts. I have written four books and about 2,000 articles. I appear regularly on various nationally syndicated radio programs. My most frequent topics include genetic engineering, pharmaceutical development, and the debunking of various manifestions of junk science.

Joe Biden's Gaffes Call For A Thorough Neurological Examination

Joe Biden after he was formally introduced by Obama as his running mate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the political silly season approaches its climax, the media seem preoccupied with minutiae that have little to do with suitability to hold office or what is good for the nation. Conspicuously absent is concern about politicians’ intelligence and mental health.

Dumb-politician anecdotes abound. I attended a symposium that Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Virginia), then chairman of the powerful House Commerce Committee, addressed via teleconference. As he recited from a prepared statement, he included the “stage instructions” – such as “Pause for Emphasis” – that had been inserted by his speechwriter. And where one line inadvertently had been duplicated, Bliley read it a second time.

A friend of mine was seated at a banquet table with the family of Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kansas), who was later to become secretary of agriculture in the Clinton cabinet. The family expressed relief at his having entered politics because none of them thought Dan was smart enough to participate in the family business: auto shredding and scrap metal.

More recently, Rep. John Salazar (D-Colorado) related this anecdote: “You know, when I was debating what became the 2008 Farm Bill, I had a member of the Ag Committee actually ask me if chocolate milk really comes from brown cows. I asked if he was joking and he assured me he wasn’t.” A member of the Agriculture Committee?

– Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) proclaimed on the House floor that “victory had been achieved” by the United States in the Vietnam war and that, “[t]oday, we have two Vietnams; side-by-side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace.” The reality is, of course, that since the withdrawal of the United States in 1975 – three years after Lee graduated from college (with a degree in Political Science) — what used to be North and South Vietnam have been united under a single communist government.

Rep. Lee is a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

It was also Rep. Lee who during a visit to the Jet Propulsion Lab asked a NASA scientist whether the Mars Pathfinder probe had photographed the flag that astronaut Neil Armstrong had left behind in 1969. Armstrong had, of course, left the flag on the moon, not Mars. No manned spacecraft has visited Mars.

– Texas Gov. Rick Perry earlier this year referred to evolution as a “theory that’s out there” that “has some gaps in it.” Reminds me of the comment attributed to one of his predecessors, Texas Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson (1875-1961), who reportedly offered during a debate over bilingual education in the 1920s, “If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for Texas schoolchildren.”

It’s no sin not to be a polymath but most of us who have spent time in Washington have noted politicians’ abject failure to know what they don’t know. Psychiatrists call this lack of insight.

There are worse things for a politician than lack of insight – and the person selected by Barack Obama to be a heartbeat away from the presidency exhibits many of them. Joe Biden has problems with impulse control and reality testing; increasingly, his utterances suggest some sort of dementia.

Speculating about deregulatory policies that a Republican administration might adopt, Biden told a crowd in Danville, Virginia last week that Romney ‘s approach would “put y’all back in chains.” That ill-chosen, impulsive remark has led to widespread condemnation, even from Democrats.

A few days later the vice president concluded a campaign speech with a rousing, “With you we can win North Carolina again.” The only problem was, he was in Virginia.

Biden has previously done and said impulsive, bizarre things. In 1987, he plagiarized part of a campaign speech from one by Neil Kinnock, leader of Britain’s Labour Party, and even revised his own family history to conform to the speech.

Biden has demonstrated poor reality testing – or a pathological disregard for the truth – for decades. He claimed in 1987 that he ”went to law school on a full academic scholarship — the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship,” and that he ”ended up in the top half” of his class. He also said that in college he was ”the outstanding student in the political science department” and ”graduated with three degrees.”

However, after inaccuracies in his statements were exposed, Biden made this admission on September 22, 1987: ”I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school and my recollection of this was inaccurate.” He had actually graduated 76th in a class of 85 from the Syracuse College of Law. And Biden’s baccalaureate accomplishment was a single B.A. degree.

Age appears not to have improved Biden’s connection with reality. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he observed: “When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television” and explained it to the American people.

Oh, really?

In fact, Roosevelt did not become president until 1933 and his first appearance on TV was in 1939. Since that gaffe, Biden, who will be 70 in November, frequently has fumbled and bumbled in his public remarks. And his boss reportedly doesn’t appreciate it. According to the authors of the 2010 book “Game Change,” Obama asked angrily, “How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?”

Are these aberrations stupidity, dementia or personality disorders? To find out, shouldn’t there be some vetting or testing of people in, or who aspire to, governmental positions as critical as the vice-presidency? After all, we require bus drivers and hairdressers to prove their competence before they are permitted to ply their trades, and applicants to most police forces undergo psychological testing.

Biden should submit to a thorough neurological and psychiatric examination, with special attention to whether he is experiencing “transient ischemic attacks” – marked by impaired blood flow to the brain – small strokes, seizures, or suffers from a brain tumor. After all, we often demand to know whether a candidate has recovered from open-heart surgery, cancer or a stroke, and many states require elderly drivers to be re-licensed.

Aren’t the vice-president’s highest-level security clearance and his influence on public policy as important as the ability to drive a car?

An exam by an expert offers an assessment of cognitive abilities, memory and quality of thought processes. It includes assessments of alertness; speech; behavior; awareness of environment; mood; affect; rationality of thought processes; appropriateness of thought content (presence of delusions, hallucinations, or phobias); memory; ability to perform simple calculations; judgement (“If you found a letter on the ground in front of a mailbox, what would you do with it?”); and abstract reasoning.

Don’t voters have a right to know whether Biden is ill or merely unlikeable, impulsive and prone to deceitfulness?

Henry I. Miller, a physician, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

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